Why is it that the vast majority of posts, in the southern styles section of kungfuonline, do not deal with self defense?

Do we not have the expertise here to answer these questions or the practitioners to ask them?

Might it be because the majority of posters do not focus their training in that direction? But then why would these people take up a martial art?

A stock response may be for fitness/health reasons. But why a martial art. Isn't a martial art first and foremost a system to help you defend yourself? If physical and mental well-being are your priorities, do yoga. It's not that ludicrous an idea. It gives you exactly what you want with no other rubbish you don't want or need.

Maybe they do it for a sense of community. Once again, why a
martial art. All sports clubs offer that. Most more than a martial arts club does. Think of your local cricket club, a lot of guys only play so they can sit in the pub afterwards.

Then there's the possibility of doing it just for the image. When you tell someone you do a martial art, they assume you can fight and there's a little bit of mystique attached, so your ego gets stroked a little. But you could get that same boost from playing rugby etc. for your club/school/varsity team. Could it be that some choose a martial arts setting because they cannot get these boosts from other sources because they are not good enough to excel in sports with such a large player base. Then the choice of a martial art makes sense. You find a suitably obscure style or simply one with few practitioners or one with people like you and what do you know! You're a big fish in a little pond! There may be many martial artists in the world, but how many are in your style and do you go out and train with them, or do you stick with the 15 other guys in your class.

Granted, this is a rather cynical viewpoint, but how else can you explain joining a martial art and not intending to learn to defend yourself.